Frequently asked questions

DustFox is an on-device photo and video cleaner for iPhone and iPad. It finds duplicates, blurry shots, heavy videos, screenshots and media sent to you, and it can free space without deleting by re-encoding videos with HEVC, converting JPEGs to HEIC and dropping Live Photo motion.

Only if you want it to be. DustFox is free to download, and Pro comes two ways: a one-time Lifetime purchase ($19.99 on the US App Store) that never renews, or a Yearly subscription ($9.99 a year) that you can cancel anytime in Settings. The Yearly plan starts with a 3-day free trial: cancel at least 24 hours before it ends and you pay nothing. There is no weekly plan.

Screenshots are always unlimited. Deletion methods share a lifetime allowance of 30 items, and conversion methods (Shrink Videos, Compressible Photos, Live Photos) share a separate 5. Scanning, the goal plan and the report card are free. Pro removes every limit.

No. Every scan, comparison and compression runs on your device, and scanning works in airplane mode, so your photos never leave it. The network is used to buy, restore and check Pro through Apple's StoreKit and RevenueCat, and to send anonymous usage statistics, which you can turn off in Settings.

No. DustFox has no sign-up, no email and no login. Pro is tied to your Apple Account by the App Store, not to a DustFox account.

Deleted items move to the Recently Deleted album in Apple Photos and stay there for 30 days, so the space is not free yet. It comes back when that album is emptied, either by you or automatically after 30 days.

In the Photos app, tap Collections, then Recently Deleted under Utilities. Tap View Album, unlock it, tap Select and choose Delete All, or select items and delete them. DustFox can't empty the album itself, so its Empty button shows these steps and opens Photos.

Yes, for 30 days. Open Recently Deleted in Photos, select the item and tap Recover. After 30 days, or once the album is emptied, it is gone for good.

The Duplicates album in Photos finds exact copies. DustFox also groups near-identical shots, such as bursts and the five takes of the same pose, and picks the best one to keep by sharpness, exposure, resolution and file size. It also shrinks videos and finds blurry shots, which Photos doesn't.

A jury of measures votes: sharpness, exposure, resolution and file size. You can open any group and see how the vote went, measure by measure, and pick a different keeper. Favorites are never suggested for deletion.

Resolution and frame rate stay the same. Your iPhone encodes in real time while recording, so it uses a high bitrate; DustFox re-encodes the same frames with HEVC more carefully. The difference is designed to be imperceptible, but the result is a new file, so back up anything irreplaceable first.

It depends on the codec and the recording, often about half. DustFox reads each video's codec and skips videos that are already efficiently encoded, and it never keeps a result that didn't get smaller.

It converts JPEG photos to HEIC, which stores the same shot in roughly half the space. The difference is very hard to see. The estimate is shown before, and the measured gain after the conversion.

DustFox keeps the still frame as a regular photo and drops the roughly three seconds of motion. The original Live Photo moves to Recently Deleted, so you can recover it for 30 days.

Yes, the ones saved to your photo library. Sent to You lists media from WhatsApp, Telegram and downloads apart from your own photos, filters them by source and month, and selects repeated copies in one tap. It can't see media that stays inside the WhatsApp app.

Yes. By default it lists only frames whose original is on the device, because those are the only ones that free device space. Turn on the iCloud switch to see the whole library; deleting a cloud item frees iCloud storage instead.

Either they live only in iCloud (turn on the iCloud switch), or you gave DustFox access to selected photos only. Favorites, hidden photos and shots you chose to keep are also left out on purpose.

Yes. Limited access is fully supported; DustFox works with the photos you selected. Full access finds more, because duplicates and repeats can only be found among photos it can see.

You tell DustFox how much space you need, and it builds the plan that gets there with the least regret: exact copies and burst extras first, then old screenshots, lossless conversions last. Every step can be switched off, and iOS asks once to confirm all deletions.

After the first scan, DustFox gives your gallery a title, such as “Screenshot Collector”, and a card to share. The card holds only numbers, never a photo, and new card themes unlock as you free space.

Open the Pro screen in DustFox and tap Restore, using the same Apple Account that made the purchase. If Pro came through Family Sharing, check that the purchase is shared with you.

Yes. Once one person in a Family Sharing group buys Pro, everyone in the group can use it on their own devices.

Refunds are handled by Apple. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com.

iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later, in 17 languages. DustFox follows your iOS language, and you can pick another in Settings. On iOS 26, Shrink Videos also keeps running in the background.

Yes, before a large cleanup. Deleted items wait 30 days in Recently Deleted, but converted videos and photos replace their originals once that album is emptied. iCloud Photos, a Mac or an external drive all work.